Arizona crime and the San Diego connection

It’s a short hop from San Diego to Tucson — a little more than an hour from Lindbergh Field to Tucson International.

And it’s a route that over the past year and a half has seen use by federal prosecutors, defense lawyers and a federal judge, all from San Diego, as they work two high-profile cases in Arizona.

This past week, an indictment was unsealed in Tucson charging five Mexican nationals with the December murder of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. Terry was killed when he was ambushed by the men, who the indictment said had illegally crossed into the U.S. to rob drug traffickers.

Guns found at the scene of the killing were eventually connected to the “Fast and Furious” sting operation conducted by Arizona agents of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. That operation was intended to trace illegal gun purchases to Mexican drug cartels but ended up allowing some 2,000 weapons to cross the border and fall into the hands of gangs.

The case was filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Diego and is being handled by three of its prosecutors. That’s because the U.S. attorney in Arizona had to step aside because that office is implicated in the Fast and Furious investigation.

In addition to the Terry case, U.S. District Judge Larry A. Burns of San Diego has been presiding over the case against Jared Loughner. He’s charged with killing six people and injuring 13 others, including former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, on Jan. 8, 2011, at a Tucson supermarket. Loughner is also represented by two lawyers from San Diego.

Burns was assigned the case after the entire federal bench in Arizona stepped aside due to a conflict. One of the victims was the chief judge for that district.

Loughner is not mentally fit for trial, and a hearing on the status of the case is set for August in Tucson.